Victoria Street

Victoria Street is the city center and central business district of Westminster, London. Named for Queen Victoria, it opened in 1851 after part of the Devil's Acre slum was demolished, and Victoria Station opened in 1860. Before the 1970s, the street housed many consulting engineering firms, and the grand Artillery Mansions were used as a grand hotel before going into decay in the 1980s and becoming a squat, and later being gutted, refurbished, and transformed into an elegant apartment block during the 1990s. In 2006, the Cardinal Place retail and office development opened along the street, leading to the opening of several restaurants, banks, and shops.